The Château d'Hougoumont (possibly originally Goumont or Gomont) is a walled manorial compound, situated at the bottom of an escarpment near the Nivelles road in the Braine-l'Alleud municipality, near Waterloo, Belgium. The site served as one of the advanced defensible positions of the Anglo-allied army under the Duke of Wellington, that faced Napoleon's Army at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.

Hougoumont, which had become dilapidated, was fully restored in time for the 200th anniversary of the battle and opened to the public on 18 June 2015.

Description

Hougoumont has been described as being a lot bigger than La Haye Sainte, a nearby farmhouse. This farmhouse consists of, encompassed by a high-standing wall, the main house, numerous barns, stables, a chapel, and several other features and buildings, including an orchard and garden. The buildings are connected through a system of stone walls with wooden gates. Waterloo Tourisme described it as “the best preserved in terms of how it looked after the Battle [of Waterloo].”

Etymology

The first mention of Hougoumont is found on the 1777 map of the Austrian Netherlands created by Comte Joseph de Ferraris, marked as "Château Hougoumont". This is believed to be a

corruption of "Château Goumont", a name first recorded in an act of the allodial court of Brabant in 1358. Also, in 1356, there is mention of the "tenure and house of Gomont" in the seigneury of Braine-l'Alleud.]]

Napoleon planned to draw Wellington's reserve to Wellington's right flank in defence of Hougoumont and then attack through the centre left of the British and allies' front near La Haye Sainte.

Before the battle started, Hougoumont and its gardens, located on the allies' right flank, were garrisoned and fortified by the 1st Battalion, 2nd Nassau Regiment, with additional detachments of jägers and landwehr from von Kielmansegge's 1st (Hanoverian) Brigade. The light company of the 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards under the command of Lt-Colonel Henry Wyndham, was also stationed in the farm and château, and the light company of the 2nd Battalion, Third Guards, under Lt-Colonel Charles Dashwood in the garden and grounds. The two light companies of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, First Guards were initially positioned in the orchard, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Saltoun. Lieutenant-Colonel James Macdonell, Coldstream Guards, had overall command of Hougoumont. (The Guards units were all drawn from General John Byng's 2nd (British) Brigade.)

Wellington recorded in his despatches "at about ten o'clock [Napoleon] commenced a furious attack upon our post at Hougoumont". Other sources state that this attack was at about 11:30. The historian Andrew Roberts notes that "It is a curious fact about the battle of Waterloo that no one is absolutely certain when it actually began".

The initial attack by Maréchal de Camp Pierre François Bauduin's 1st Brigade of the 6th Division emptied the wood and park, but was driven back by heavy British artillery fire and cost Bauduin his life. The British guns were distracted into an artillery duel with French guns and this allowed a second attack by Maréchal de Camp Baron Soye's 2nd Brigade of the 6th Division. They managed a small breach on the south side but could not exploit it. An attack on the north side by elements of the 1st Brigade of the 6th Division was more successful.

This attack led to one of the most famous skirmishes in the Battle of Waterloo — Sous-Lieutenant Legros, wielding an axe, managed to break through the north gate. A desperate fight ensued between the invading French soldiers and the defending Guards. In a near-miraculous attack, Macdonell, a small party of officers and Sergeant James Graham fought through the melee to shut the gate, trapping Legros and about 30 other soldiers of the 1st Légère inside. All of the French who entered were killed except a drummer boy in the desperate hand-to-hand fight. In fact there is a good case that both Napoleon and Wellington thought Hougoumont was a vital part of the battle. Certainly, Wellington declared afterwards that "the success of the battle turned upon the closing of the gates at Hougoumont".

Hougoumont was a part of the battlefield that Napoleon could see clearly and he continued to direct resources towards it and its surroundings all afternoon (33 battalions in all, 14,000 troops). The French forces sent in to attack Hougoumont included:

  • nearly the entire II Corps under the command of General Honoré Reille, consisting of detachments of the 6th Division under the command of Jérôme, (Napoleon's youngest brother), the divisions of Comte Maximilien Foy (9th), Guilleminot and Joseph Bachelu (5th)
  • Kellermann's cavalry corps

Similarly, though the house never contained a large number of troops, Wellington devoted 21 battalions (12,000 troops) over the course of the afternoon to keeping the hollow way open to allow fresh troops and ammunition to be admitted to the house. He also moved several artillery batteries from his hard-pressed centre to support Hougoumont.

Bodies in wells

thumb|A view of the Château d'Hogoumont, workmen piling timber upon a pyre to burn the French dead by: C. C. Hamilton engraved by James Rouse

In his novel Les Misérables, Victor Hugo describes how 300 bodies were thrown down a well at Hougoumont. Several historians have noted that an archaeological dig of the well by Derick Saunders in 1985 turned up no human remains in a well rediscovered at the site. In doing so, they state that it debunks a myth made popular by Hugo.

A popular account of the battle by John Booth published in London shortly after the battle includes a diary entry by an early gentleman tourist to the site. The tourist records that he was shown around that battlefield by the well known guide, Jean-Baptiste Decoster, and that 16 July 1815 (one month after the battle) he saw two wells, one that contained eight men and another that contained 73 men. The first well was at La Belle Alliance "wherein we saw the bodies of eight men of the Imperial Guard of Napoleon; they had jumped down with their arms"; and the second probably at Hougoumont, "The French formed a battery by making holes in the garden-wall; here is another well, in which were found 73 men; the trees in the orchard were peppered very much; the ditch around this orchard was used as a battery, and hundreds killed; saw 84 other pieces of cannon taken from the enemy; they took home only 12 guns; counted 40 graves, containing English officers, in one acre of ground, resembling dung-heaps".

Decay and restoration

thumb|Plan of the farm, by F Bonaert, 1974

Hougoumont remained an active farm until the end of the 20th century. In 2003 a settlement was reached between Count Guibert d'Oultremont, owner of the farm, and the Regional Authority after which it became the property of the Intercommunale (1815). By June 2006, the farm appeared to be derelict. The walls, which were once near pristine white, had become a dirty yellow. Several walls were cracked and parts were clearly damaged, most notably the right-hand door post of the north side gate.

Project Hougoumont, supported by, amongst others, the then-current Duke of Wellington, writer Bernard Cornwell and the late historian Richard Holmes, was set up to oversee funding to restore and preserve Hougoumont for the long-term future. The project was completed in June 2015 at a cost of £3m, with organisations including the Landmark Trust contributing to the funds in return for being allowed to rent part of the property (the Game Keeper's Cottage). Charles, Prince of Wales, unveiled a memorial at Hougoumont on 17 June 2015 dedicated to the British soldiers who fought in the battle. The memorial by Vivien Mallock stands next to the north gate and shows two life-size soldiers struggling to close the critical gates of the farm to save it from being overrun by the French. The next day (18 June 2015) Hougoumont was opened to the public on the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.

<gallery perrow="5">

File:Coldstream_guards_hougoumont.jpg|A plaque in the memory of the Coldstream Guards

File:North gate Hougoumont.jpg|Gate on the north side attacked by French 1st Légère defended by British Guards

File:Zicht_hougoumont.jpg|Hougoumont

File:Omwalling1_hougoumont.jpg|Wall on the south side

</gallery>

See also

  • Order of Battle of the Waterloo Campaign
  • List of Waterloo Battlefield locations

Notes

References

  • Holmes, Richard, Project Hougoumont, retrieved 2 June 2010
  • Military Times, Save Hougomont at the Battlefield of Waterloo , retrieved 26 March 2011
  • Hugo, Victor, Les Miserables, Volume II, Book First. Waterloo Chapter II. Hougomont, retrieved 2 June 2010
  • Staff, Waterloo: The Hougoumont Farm, Trabel.com and Arakea.com, retrieved 2 June 2010